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What's Going On With Shipping?

The war began March 19, 2003, with an overwhelming show of American military might, described by the unforgettable phrase “shock and awe.” Within weeks, the United States achieved the primary objective of Operation Iraqi Freedom, as the military operation was called, ousting the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein. Yet the military campaign that began so auspiciously ended up deeply dividing Americans and alienating key U.S. allies. As Americans looked back on the war four years ago, 62% said it was not worth fighting. … In a pivotal moment in the Iraq debate, Powell presented what he described as “facts and...

MP George Galloway has congratulated Hizbollah on its "victory" in Israel. At a news conference in a Beirut hotel, the controversial politician said: "I came here to extend my congratulations to the Lebanese people on a great and historic victory against this aggression. "I want to congratulate the Lebanese resistance and their leading edge, Hizbollah, whose martyrs and her s have achieved this great victory. "And in particular to their leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose name now rings in joy around the world." Galloway is in Beirut to present a phone-in radio show for a British radio station. He also...

Dear friends and family, It’s been exactly a week since the war against Iran began. I am sure a lot of you want to know how we (we personally and we Israel) are doing and how we are experiencing this. First some hard statistics. Iran launched close to 600 missiles and over 1500 suicide drones to attack Israel and 12 other countries, including a European country (Cyprus), Turkey and even Azerbaijan. Of these, roughly 200 targeted Israel. Almost all of them were intercepted, but there were 3 direct hits. Two missiles hit apartment buildings and one was a direct hit...

Investing.com - U.S. stocks were a sea of red on Monday as the escalating conflict in the Middle East pushed oil prices to $100 a barrel, raising fears that higher energy costs could weigh on the economy. At 09:43 ET (13:43 GMT), the benchmark S&P 500 index slid 1.2% to 6,655.57 points, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite slumped 1.3% to 22,103.06 points, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 1.4% to 46,846.08 points.

Iran continues to launch hundreds of drones towards the Gulf nations, including new rounds of attacks on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain over the last few days. “13 drones [were] downed east of Riyadh city and eight [were] destroyed upon entering Saudi airspace.” The report added, “Drone attacks continue despite an apology given by Iranian officials to Gulf states.” Additionally, “Saudi Arabia’s air defenses neutralized a fresh wave of drone attacks on Sunday Iran also targeted Aramco’s Shaybah oil field with 21 drones. on Saturday, Saudi defenses intercepted five ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base in...

Following our bombing of Iran, we are hearing the usual caterwauling from the Left about international law. Of course, no one invokes international law when Iran kills our servicemen, or when Hamas massacres Israelis, or when Iran launches missiles against the United Arab Emirates, and so on. There is a certain asymmetry in the invocation of international law.I took a course in international law when I was in law school. It was taught by a distinguished scholar in that field. As I recall, the first section of the course was devoted to the question, is there such a thing as...

Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment as Iran’s supreme leader is the kind of hereditary transition that his father once rejected.Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, has been appointed to succeed his father as the new head of the Islamic Republic. The younger Khamenei was named supreme leader by the top clerical body - the Assembly of Experts - in a statement published shortly after midnight on Monday (Mar 9) in Iran. Other contenders for the top position had included Alireza Arafi, one of the three members of the interim council running the country, hardliner Mohsen Araki, and...

Fox News host Mark Levin said it is safe to ignore anyone claiming President Donald Trump’s supporters are turning against him because of the war on Iran, with Levin saying on Saturday that only a handful of “nut jobs” and “neofascists” are trying to make that argument.Levin went off on reports, polls, and influencers — without naming anyone in particular – that have said the war is unpopular with Trump’s Make America Great Again base.“Polling? Seriously? Okay, I got a poll for ya,” he said on Life, Liberty, & Levin. “The latest poll shows 92% of MAGA supports the president...

“War is the continuation of politics by other means.” – Carl von Clausewitz Seven days into the U.S.–Israel war with Iran, the central question is not simply what has happened on the battlefield, but whether the strategy behind the war is working. In classical strategic terms, war must always be evaluated through the relationship between political objectives and military action. The Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz argued that the political objective determines the military means used to achieve it. The success of a war cannot be measured simply by explosions, missile launches, or headlines. It must be measured by...

Donald Trump is betting that decisive force—not endless stalemate—can topple regimes, realign alliances, and compress decades of history into weeks.“There are decades where nothing happens,” Vladimir Lenin is supposed to have said (but didn’t), “and there are weeks where decades happen.” Welcome to the beginning of March, Anno Domini 2026. One week ago, on February 28, the United States and Israel commenced an attack on Iran. At first, it seemed to be merely a ramped-up continuation of Operation Midnight Hammer, the raid conducted last June when the United States, following up on Israel’s preliminary attacks, destroyed (“completely and totally obliterated”)...

Republican support for the war may not be as solid as it appears – and that could have implications for a U.S. intervention in Taiwan.In the days following the Israeli-U.S. strikes on Iran, both chambers of the U.S. Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives – voted on a War Powers Resolution aimed at halting U.S. President Donald Trump’s military action, which was not given congressional authorization. Although the measure failed in both chambers – with nearly all Republicans voting against it and publicly supporting the administration – a closer look suggests that Republican support for the...

What we knowIRAN REJECTS NEGOTIATIONS: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas that Iran has not asked for a ceasefire, rejecting negotiations with the U.S.SUB ATTACK REVENGE VOW: Tehran has warned that the U.S. will "bitterly regret" the torpedo attack on an Iranian naval ship in the Indian Ocean. Iran, still being hammered by American and Israeli strikes, launched expanding drone attacks in retaliation that led to blasts across the region.SENATE PUSH TO STOP WAR FAILS: A war powers resolution to restrict President Donald Trump’s ability to carry out further military action against Iran, which...

Israeli fighter jets carried out a major strike in the heart of Tehran early on Friday, targeting an underground bunker built beneath the leadership compound of Iran's supreme leader. The Israeli Air Force said approximately 50 jets took part in the operation, guided by precise intelligence from Israel's Military Intelligence and coordinated with Mossad. The target was the underground bunker constructed for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Israeli military described the bunker as serving as "a secure emergency asset" intended for Khamenei to manage fighting during a conflict. It was never used by Khamenei because he had already been eliminated in...

Azerbaijan’s State Security Service (SSS) announced on Friday that it had stopped Iranian intelligence agents from committing terror attacks against four targets in the country. The targets include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan, a leader of the country's Mizrahi Jewish religious community, and the Ashkenazi synagogue, Azerbaijan’s media reported. “The series of planned terrorist and intelligence operations was orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence service SEPAH, assigning local operatives to conduct surveillance, acquire weapons, and secure transportation," the SSS said.

President Trump has said that there will be no deal with Iran “except unconditional surrender” in his latest post on social media. “After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,” wrote the US president. “IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).”

TEL AVIV—Israel’s military is targeting the Iranian police state that brutally suppressed protests and killed thousands of people, with the hope of clearing the way for a popular revolt to overthrow the Islamic government. Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday carried out a wave of strikes targeting people responsible for internal security, from members of the Basij paramilitary force to senior intelligence officials, the Israeli military said. Israel, along with the U.S., has also hit some domestic-security agencies, including the Tehran headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the powerful group responsible for defending and perpetuating the regime. The Revolutionary Guard and...

Donald Trump has expressed public support for a possible Kurdish offensive against Iran as the United States pushes to destabilise the Iranian governing system internally. “I think it’s wonderful that they want to do that, I’d be all for it,” the US president told the Reuters news agency on Thursday when asked about the prospects of a Kurdish rebellion in Iran. Several US media outlets have reported that Trump called leaders in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq to enable Iranian Kurdish groups launch a ground offensive inside Iran. In his comments on Thursday, Trump declined to say whether the...

Iran appeared determined to avenge the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian officials following the start of the US-Israeli assault on Saturday, as Tehran continued to strike back at Israel and United States military assets across the Gulf on Monday. After Khamenei’s death was confirmed by Iranian state media on Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vowed revenge and launched what it called “the heaviest offensive operations in the history of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic against occupied lands [a reference to Israel] and the bases of American terrorists”.

The Qatari MoD says the Qatar Emiri Air Force has shot down two Iranian Su-24s, as well as seven ballistic missiles and five drones. As the third day of combat operations against Iran draws to an end, the Qatari Ministry of Defense has announced that the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) has shot down two Iranian Su-24 Fencer tactical bombers on Mar. 2, 2026. These would be first two Iranian aircraft confirmed to have been shot down since the start of the conflict. Additionally, the MoD says the QEAF intercepted seven ballistic missiles through air defenses, while five drones were...